Information Security Seminar 

17/07/2009, 16:15 — 17:15 — Room P3.10, Mathematics Building
Rajagopal Nagarajan, Warwick University, UK

Modelling and Analysis of Quantum Protocols

The novel field of quantum computing and quantum information has gathered significant impetus in the last few years, and it has the potential to radically impact the future of information technology. While the successful construction of a large-scale quantum computer may be some years away, secure communication involving quantum cryptography has already been implemented, and equipment for quantum cryptography is commercially available. The major selling point of quantum cryptography is unconditional security. But can this be guaranteed in practice? Even when protocols have been mathematically proved to be secure, it is notoriously difficult to achieve robust and reliable implementations of secure systems. Techniques based on formal verification are now widely used by industry to ensure that (classical) systems meet their specifications. In this talk, I will give an overview of our ongoing work in using such techniques for the modelling and analysis of quantum protocols and, eventually, their implementations. Joint work with Simon Gay and Nick Papanikolaou.